The China Doll
by AkaLilly
Summary: Ayita loved Halloween, up until the moment she died. Now she's being held against her will by some old coot. The only thing making her after life tollerable: her new friends Dana and Susan, not to mention Royce. One Shot TornPrinceXOC


Aka-Chan: As of late, I have been rather obsessed with Thir13en Ghosts. It's a great movie. I own nothing with the exception of Ayita.

* * *

The harvest moon bathed Ayita in a cold glow. Her ivory pale skin almost had an iridescent glow to it as she danced down the street. Halloween was her favorite holiday. Her black ballerina skirt flared out as she pirouetted up the drive way of the next house.

"My, my. What have we here?" The old woman handing out the candy asked.

"I am a porcelain doll… or a gothic ballerina… both work" Ayita gave a deep bow, her shocking honey colored eyes never leaving the woman's. Ayita's dress was in fact a black ballerina dress, with it she wore black lace tights, black boots, covered in buckles, that went up to her knees, a headband with a small top hat and veil attached, and her long black locks tied up in a tight bun on the back of her head. Black silk ribbons were tied, criss-crossing down both arms, ending in bows at her wrists; another was tied around her neck.

"Very unique my dear, have a special piece of candy." The old woman handed Ayita a blood red sucker. "It was my daughter's favorite flavor. You remind me of her." She smiled.

"Thank you Ma'am. Have a happy Halloween." Ayita took the sucker. She opened it as she danced down the drive and popped it in her mouth. The smell of fake cherry reached her nose, mixed with almonds. She pulled the sucker from her mouth and sniffed it. Cherries and Almonds. It only tasted of cherries. She shrugged and popped the sucker back into her mouth. At the end of the block, the little gothic ballerina fell to the sidewalk.

* * *

Ayita stood and brushed off her dress. She looked down; her body laid at her feet, the red sucker still between her lips. "I guess that means I'm dead…" She rolled her tongue over the sucker and pulled it out of her mouth. She stared at it. There was a ring of black lipstick on the stick and the sucker itself almost seemed to glow in the light of the street lamp.

"Mommy, Mommy, why's that girl laying on the sidewalk? Doesn't she know it's Halloween?" A child asked.

"Hmm? Oh god! Look away honey. Someone call an ambulance!" A woman ran through Ayita and knelt by her body, apparently checking for a pulse.

"No use Lady. I'm already dead."

The woman began doing chest compressions and performing CPR.

Getting frustrated, Ayita walked away, back toward the old woman's house.

The light was off and the woman was no longer on her porch.

Ayita walked up the steps and stared at the door. She touched the door knob and her fingers passed through. " Right…I'm a ghost…" She walked through the door and began looking for the old coot.

She found her in a room decorated for a little girl. Porcelain dolls lined the walls and music boxes covered the top of the dresser. The body of a girl, long dead and apparently mummified lay on the bed. The old woman held the dead girl's hand. "I sent you a friend Claira. She's just like you. She'll be a little girl forever. I'm so happy you'll never leave me dearest."

Ayita slowly backed out of the room. "Creepy."

"Tell me about it. She killed me when I turned 16 so I'd always be her little girl."

Ayita turned quickly and saw a girl sitting on the counter. She was wearing a black and white party dress and her long golden hair was done up in Shirley Temple curls. A black ribbon was tied around her neck, cutting into her skin.

"She killed you because of the ribbon. Sends me a 'friend' every time she sees another girl with a black silk ribbon around her neck." The girl motioned to the ribbon around her own neck.

"Creepy…" Ayita muttered.

"I'm Claira."

"Ayita…" She absently twirled the sucker between her fingers.

"She put arsenic in the sucker," Claira motioned toward it.

"Once again: creepy."

"You should go. She's not scared of ghosts. No matter what you do, she'll think it's just us playing together. She'll be tempted to send us another friend."

Ayita nodded and walked out of the house, unsure of where to go.

* * *

fRumors flew around the little town about how Ayita poisoned herself. Her friends backed up the claim, saying she was depressed and suicidal.

Ayita grew frustrated, screaming at those she'd loved in life that she'd been murdered by a psychotic old hag, but no one could hear her.

"I can't believe she did it on Halloween. I mean she loved that holiday." Nina, Ayita's former best friend, said to Cory, their gay friend.

"That might be why she did it then: wanted her last memories to be good ones." Cory shrugged.

"I have to go. See you tomorrow?" Nina smiled sweetly.

"See you tomorrow." Cory affirmed.

Nina walked out the doors of the school into the cool autumn air.

Ayita followed, unaffected by the temperature. She wrapped the sucker back up in the cellophane and placed it on the top of a garden wall as Nina passed.

The blood red candy glinted in the sun.

Nina stopped and picked it up, curiously. She looked around. No one. Shrugging, she opened it and popped it into her mouth. Within fifteen steps she fell to the ground.

Ayita picked up her sucker and popped it back in her mouth before walking away.

In this way, she murdered those who spread it around that she'd killed herself.

* * *

Spring came all too soon and Ayita found herself standing in front of the old lady's house. She'd come to find out that her name was Willa Crawford. She'd been widowed at a young age and left alone with her young daughter. Everyone in the town believed that her daughter, Claira, had run away on her sweet sixteen with some boy from a neighboring town.

Ayita was pulled from her deep thoughts as chanting reached her ears. Her feet began walking on their own accord.

The chanting grew louder and the young ghost girl stepped into the glow of several spotlights set up just outside of town. Men stared at her through strange glasses.

The record skipped and the chanting was broken, distorted.

Ayita pounced on the closest man, using the black ribbon from her right arm to strangle him. "Leave me alone!" She roared.

His lips turned blue as he struggled helplessly against her strong grasp. Finally he fell.

She turned to find her next victim, but the chanting began again and her feet were drawing her closer to a large glass cage. "No!" She lashed out, clawing at the nearest man, her nails drawing blood as she was pulled against her will into the box. She managed to pull the man in with her. "Let me out or I'll kill him!"

"You'll kill more people if we let you out." The young man seemed confident in what he was saying.

Ayita sighed. He was right… but that didn't mean she couldn't keep her word. She slowly strangled the man locked in the box with her, letting go just as he began passing out and pulling the ribbon tight as his strength grew.

Her glass prison was loaded into a shipping container on the back of a truck.

Once she grew bored of torturing the man, she let him pass out and left him in a corner, knocking him out every time he came to.

After some unknown time of traveling, the shipping container was opened and Ayita's enclosure was removed.

The foundation of a house was being built. All of the walls were glass.

A crane picked up Ayita's glass box and lowered it into the incomplete basement. It was set down door pressed against another door. Both opened.

The chanting began and Ayita was forced into the new glass room.

The doors closed behind her and she watched as her old prison was lifted out and set on the ground. She could hear the yells of men calling for medical. They'd found her 'toy' was still alive.

"Who're you Doll?"

Ayita's eyes snapped onto the 'cell' beside her own. He was a 1950's jock, baseball bat resting on the shoulder of his letterman jacket as he leaned against a crashed t-bird.

"Ayita."

"Royce… but the old man's been calling me 'The Torn Prince.'"

"Old man?"

Royce motioned with his bat for her to turn around.

She did so.

An old man stood, leaning on a cane, looking in on her with the same strange glasses as everyone else seemed to be wearing. "Hello China Doll."

In an instant Ayita slammed against the wall in front of him, beating against it with her fists. "Let me out of her you mother fucker! When I get my hands on you, you're going to wish you were never born!" Her voice boomed in the small room.

A maniacal laugh issued from the cell on her other side. "Quite the fight in this one; I like that. Wait till I get my hands on you girly. You're mine."

Ayita ignored the other specter, preferring to loose a string of curses at the old man.

He only laughed.

"He can't really hear ya Doll."

She looked back at Royce, "he can see me can't he?"

"Well, as long as he has the glasses on."

"Oh, good." She smiled sweetly and looked back at the old man. She held up her middle finger before proceeding to curse him out in sign language.

He glared at her. "Not very lady like, are you?"

Ayita flipped him off once more for good measure before walking back to the wall she shared with Royce. "Thank the heavens for having an aunt with hearing issues."

He chuckled. "That was good Toots."

"So, who's the psycho pervert that apparently wants to… do something to me, what I don't know, but something I probably won't like." She motioned over her shoulder at the other cell.

"Ryan. The Jackal. Stay away from him if ya can."

"Not much choice." Ayita tapped the glass separating them. "So, who else is here?"

Royce motioned for her to follow him as he walked to the end of their shared wall.

"That's Dana, The Angry Princess. She's good for talk'n to… usually."

Dana was a beautiful woman that was completely naked and covered in deep cuts. Her cell was splattered in blood. She waved her knife at Ayita.

Ayita waved back, rolling her sucker around in her mouth.

"Over there is Billy, The First Born Son. He'll talk yer ear off 'bout Cowboys and Indians."

The little boy glared at the young woman.

"Great…" she muttered, absently thinking of her Cherokee grandfather.

"Beside him is Isabella, The Pilgrimess. It's best to just leave her be."

The old woman glared at them, her head and arms still confined in the stocks.

"That's fine; I don't like old ladies anyhow. My murder was an old lady."

Dana laughed. "You were murdered by an old lady?"

"Yep," She held up her sucker, "she gave me a special cherries and arsenic flavored sucker on Halloween."

"Don't take candy from strangers." Royce smirked.

"Well I know that now," Ayita sighed. "So, what other miserable people are here to keep us company?"

Royce motioned for her to follow him back down their shared wall to the other side. "This is Susan. The Bound Woman."

"Hi," Susan nodded. Her hands were bound behind her back and a tie was tied around her neck.

"Hi." Ayita waved.

"Next to her is Jimmy. The Torso. Can't really talk through the plastic wrap… and cause his head isn't attached…" Royce trailed off. "Next to him is George. The Hammer."

Ayita looked at the tall black man. If it weren't for the spikes driven into his skin and the hammer that replaced his left hand, he would have looked like a nice fellow. She waved nervously.

"We can't see them since they're on the other side of Dana, Isabella, and Billy, but there's also Margret and Harold, The Dire Mother and The Great Child."

"So there's eleven of us?"

"Right now. Thing is, there's another two prisons next to Margret and Harold. Meant for another two ghosts."

"So thirteen? Great. Just great." She sighed and sank to her knees.

Royce seemed to know she wanted to be left alone and began swinging his bat, practicing.

Ayita pulled her sucker from her mouth and stared at it, deep in thought.

* * *

Ayita danced in her cage to music only she could hear, her boots off and sitting off to one side, day dreaming about strangling the life out of the man she now knew as Cyrus Kriticos with her lovely silk ribbons. She ended her dance with a bow.

Dana clapped.

"You're so lovely Ayita." Susan cheered. "You must have been dancing your whole life."

"Not really. I just had a talent… and I watched movies like Grease way too many times." Ayita giggled.

"What's that?" Royce asked.

"Hmm?" Ayita pirouetted again, bending over backwards and letting her arms hang loosely.

"Grease, what's it about?"

"It's a musical about… well…greasers…" She trailed off, coming to a stop as she looked at him upside-down.

"I hate greasers." He grumbled, taking a rather hard swing with his bat.

"I bet you do." Ayita giggled and went back to spinning.

"Listen Doll, it's 'cause of a greaser that I'm here. So can it."

"Sorry." Ayita was sure that if she'd been alive, she'd have blushed. She came to a halt and stood up straight.

Ryan was staring at her in his usual creepy manner.

She turned her back to him. "And now I'm bored… God that happens way too often," she muttered the last part.

"I can think of something for you to do…" Ryan's voice trailed off.

"And I can think of where you can shove your idea." Ayita snapped.

"What'd you do for fun before you were captured?" Dana asked.

"Killed people that spread rumors about me killing myself," Ayita picked up her sucker from where she'd set it down and pulled the wrapper off once more. She popped it into her mouth. Really it didn't matter; no matter what, she always tasted the cheap cherry flavoring, but sucking on it was something to do.

"Did you strangle them with your ribbons?" Susan asked.

"Nope; I left my sucker for them to find, all wrapped up and looking just too tempting to pass up." She giggled and pulled the candy from her mouth with a loud 'pop.'

Royce was watching her intently as he swung his bat.

An idea popped into her head. Her tongue snaked out from between her black lips and twirled around the tip of the sucker as she closed her eyes softly. She put her lips around the top and sucked provocatively.

There was a bang as Royce's bat flew from his grasp and hit the wall.

Ayita opened her eyes and laughed at the rather embarrassed look on his face. "Smooth." She popped the sucker back into her mouth, sucking on it normally.

Susan giggled and Dana smiled one of her rare smiles.

Royce muttered something about women ghosts being evil.

Ayita pulled the sucker from her mouth so she could stick her tongue out at him as he retrieved his bat. She sat down on one of the fake grave stones that decorated her cell. Just as with every other ghost, after the first couple of days her cell began taking shape, fitting itself to her death. Royce had his t-bird, Dana's was a blood bath, and Ayita's was decorated like Willa Crawford's front yard that Halloween: a graveyard with funny things on the gravestones, fake bats that flew in cirlcles hanging in midair were they would have been hanging from her tree, an open coffin leaned against one corner a cheap plastic skeleton dressed in a tux half hanging out. It was all very corny in the light of the basement. The gravestone she sat on read "Here lies Sailor Joe. He died in the snow." A white sailor hat and dog tags hung from one corner and a tattered old sailor suit and beer bottle were crumpled on the floor in front of it, partially covered in leaves.

She climbed up on top of the largest gravestone. The one that read "Here lies Mighty Moe and Jack. They died right out back." The wood was three inches thick with a bar at the top and bottom that was four inches thick. All in all it came up to her belly button. She began to dance slowly, singing "Black Bird."

From somewhere beyond Billy's cell a woman joined her.

The song drew to a close and Ayita looked at Dana for an explanation.

"The Wilted Lover, Jean, I think it was." Dana shrugged, testing the sharpness of her knife against her thumb.

"Ah… You have a lovely singing voice Jean." Ayita called.

"As do you." The reply came.

Ayita smiled and went back to dancing. Once she got bored, she jumped down and pulled her boots back on, fastening the many buckles. She wrapped her sucker back up and set it on the Mighty Moe and Jack head stone.

Many of the headstones made her laugh softly. One read "I Told You I Was Sick," while the one next to it read "Her lies Lester Moore. Four Slugs from a .44. No Les. No Moore." Her favorite read "Rest in Pieces," and stood bewteen "Here lies Jonathan Blake. Stepped on the Gas instead of the Brake" and "Here lies John Yeast. Pardon me For not Rising." The last two read "H. Dumpty, if only the king's men were better at puzzles." and "Here lies a man named Zeke. Second fastest draw in Cripple Creek."

She sat down with her back to Mighty Moe and Jack's headstone, and out of pure boredom, fell asleep.

* * *

Ayita woke to the sound of machinery. She looked around.

Dana's cell door slid open.

The bloody woman smiled wickedly and stepped out into the hall, walking off.

"Where's she going?" Ayita asked Royce.

"A human walked by a while ago; said something that up set her."

"Ah…" Her gaze moved to the mechanism of her door. "You think we'll be let loose?"

Royce shrugged, continuing to practice his batting.

Ayita sighed and climbed back onto the large headstone. She began dancing absently, letting her mind wonder.

Royce's bat hit the wall of his cell. She jumped, startled, and saw two humans standing in the hall in front of Royce's cell.

"God! I hate it when they do that!" The man yelled.

Ayita recognized him as the one that said she'd keep killing if she were let go.

"Do what?"

"Wait until you have you face pressed up against the glass, then give you a big, fat 'boo!' Don't do that." He hit the glass with his fist.

Royce continued to beat the wall of his cell with the bat.

The man handed the woman the glasses.

She stared at Royce. "It's… it's… A ghost!"

"Whoa Killer. After the first swing it stops being scary."

"Maybe to you." Royce growled, taking his frustration out on the glass.

Ayita sighed and grabbed her sucker after jumping down. She walked seductively up to the glass as she unwrapped the candy and started licking it, her eyes locked onto the two humans.

"What's she doing?" The woman asked, pointing at Ayita.

"I don't know; I don't have the glasses." The man said, irritably taking them from the woman. He put them on and looked at Ayita.

She gave a little wave before turning seductively and bending over, eyes still locked with the man's.

Royce stopped beating on his wall to watch.

She gripped the edges of the smallest headstone, the one that read "Rest In Pieces," and, in a flash, slammed it against the wall in front of the man's face.

He yelled and dropped the glasses. "I fucking hate it when they do that!"

Ayita broke down in a fit of giggles as the two humans hurried along the hall. "See Killer, once is enough to scare the piss outta a human."

"Gotta hand it to ya Dolly: that was a good one." He took one last swing at the wall and leaned against his car.

Machinery once again filled the cells with noise.

Ayita's door slid open.

"Ladies first apparently," she smiled mischievously and waved at Royce. "Find me when you get out. We could have some fun together." She winked at him and slid out of her cell and down the hall. She found a set of stairs and followed them up. Looking around, she realized that he entire house was made of glass. "Guess he who lives in this house can cast the first stone," she muttered as she found a room with a stereo. "Wonderful!" She tried pushing the 'open' button to see 1) if she could use the stereo instead of phasing through it, and 2) if she could use it, what was in it.

The top popped open revealing, of all things, Beethoven.

Ayita grinned and closed the player before pushing play.

Fur Elise filled the house.

The Ghost woman sighed contently and began dancing down the halls.

Footsteps and frantic talking came from a hall to Ayita's left. She danced to it, pirouetting at the end of the hall and slowly stopping as she faced a group of humans. It was the two from downstairs, plus another man and woman. She smiled at them and began to dance slowly down the hall, untying the ribbon from her arm. Once it was off, she stopped and faced them, the best innocent smile she could muster painted on her lips. She held the ribbon out. It lay gently over both of her hands. She took this moment to assess her victims. The man from before was panting, the woman was torn up, obviously she'd met up with Ryan, the new man was also cut up, but only a little, and the new woman was crouched down and pulling something from her bag. Ayita recognized her. The woman had been in the basement before, with Cyrus. Her face contorted in rage and she gripped her ribbon tightly, charging the woman.

There was a bright flash that burned Ayita's eyes and made her scream out in pain. She fled blindly down the halls, away from the humans, her arm covering her eyes.

She didn't stop running until someone grabbed her.

"What you runn'n from Dolly?"

She moved her arm from in front of her face and blinked before looking up into Royce's piercing blue eyes. "They had a flare."

Royce laughed. "You ran away from a flare?"

"It burned." She muttered, burying her face in his chest and jacket, careful to avoid the larger gashes and road rashes.

He wrapped his arms around her waist. "O-kay, I get it, it burned, Doll. You're alright now."

Ayita smiled to herself and looked up at Royce. She pulled the sucker out of her mouth, leaned up, and kissed his un-marred cheek. "Thank you Royce."

He let her go and started to walk away stiffly.

Ayita giggled and wrapped the sucker back up, sticking it in her cleavage for safe keeping before following Royce. She appeared beside him. "Sorry."

"Don't be, Dolly." He gave her a slight smile before looking ahead once again.

She smiled.

He offered her his arm and she took it.

"Don't you two make quite the lovely couple?" Susan asked, coming around the corner.

"Sure… and the sky is green." Ayita rolled her eyes.

Royce looked up. "Hey, Doll, look up."

She did so. The glow of the lights in the house and the many layers of thick glass made the sky look green. She giggled.

Susan giggled as well. "Bye love birds." She walked past them, down the hall.

They wondered for a while until they came across the two living men. They were using a door with seals on it as a shield. Royce pushed Ayita behind him and wound up his bat, ready to take a swing.

"Ram him! He's swinging for the fences!"

They ran forward as fast as they could, smashing Royce and Ayita behind the glass. They then moved the glass so they could get around the corner, but they two ghosts couldn't get to them.

Ayita glared at them and walked down the hall a bit. She picked up Royce's bat and walked back over to him. She handed it to him.

He looked away from the humans and down at her. As he took the bat, he brought his lips down on hers, wrapping his arms around her waist.

She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck.

They both began to fade, still holding each other tightly.

The next thing Ayita knew, the house was in ruins. She looked around. The others, Royce, Dana, Susan, Ryan, Billy, Isabella, Margret, Harold, Jimmy, George, Breaker, and Jean were all standing in a circle with her. She shook her head and looked around the circle. Everyone seemed to be brake from their trance.

Jean smiled; her face once more whole. Her hospital gown turned into a normal outfit.

Dana's skin healed, clothes formed on her body, and her hair dried.

The tie around Susan's neck disappeared along with the deep gashes and maggots.

The arrow disappeared from Billy's forehead.

The stocks faded away and the decay reversed itself, turning Isabella back into the woman she had been.

Jimmy's legs formed and his head reattached itself.

The spikes in George's skin disappeared and the hammer turned back into his left hand.

The Bullet holes in Breaker's skin filled in.

Ryan's 'head cage' and straight jacket disappeared.

Margret and Harold once again looked alive and well.

Ayita's eyes locked onto Royce's eyes. His face was once again whole, no holes in his shirt and letterman jacket where she could see torn flesh. He gave her an awed look as he stepped across the circle to take her in his arms.

"Ayita, Doll," he kissed her.

When he finally broke the kiss, Ayita looked down at herself. She was in the uniform for her high school: a blue plaid skirt, white knee socks, black gym shoes, and a button up white blouse. She couldn't taste the cherry sucker.

With his arm still wrapped around her, Royce led her out of the ruins of the house.

The others followed.

Once out on the lawn, free of the glass prison, each began to fade, going to their perspective place. Heaven for some, Hell for others.

Royce kissed Ayita once more as they disappeared from the Earth.

* * *

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